How to Start Your Retail Media Network: Simple Steps for Success

Retail media networks (RMNs) have become a dominant force in advertising, delivering 60-70% profit margins—substantially higher than those of traditional retail operations. These networks represent one of the fastest-growing sectors in digital marketing, with global digital retail ad spending expected to reach $166 billion in 2025.

The opportunity extends across markets of all sizes. Retail media ad spending will account for 23% of total digital ad spend globally by 2025, while US retail media ad spend alone is projected to reach $100 billion by 2028. Even in Australia, the retail media market is expected to grow to $3 billion by 2027.

What stands in their way of success? Many retailers hesitate to launch their own media networks because they believe building one requires complex, custom ad-tech infrastructure. This misconception prevents businesses from capturing their share of this lucrative market.

The reality is far more straightforward. A retail media network is a platform that enables brands and sellers to place ads within a retailer's shopping environment—online and in physical stores. Retailers can implement effective media networks using existing composable commerce components rather than building everything from scratch.

Nearly 70% of advertisers report significantly better performance with RMNs compared to other channels, making this an opportunity too valuable to ignore. Let's explore how retailers of all sizes can build successful media networks without overwhelming technical complexity.

Key Takeaways

Retail media networks offer retailers an extraordinary opportunity to capture high-margin revenue without building complex ad-tech infrastructure from scratch.

• Use a composable commerce approach: Leverage existing PIM systems, search engines, and analytics tools rather than building custom ad-tech platforms from scratch.
• Start with sponsored products: Implement keyword-based sponsored listings in search results and on category pages as your foundation—they account for 78% of retail media spend.
• Launch within 12 weeks: Follow the systematic roadmap: clean catalog data, deploy placement engine, add sponsored logic, enable seller billing, integrate CDP, and launch 2-3 ad formats.
• Focus on exceptional margins: Retail media delivers 70-90% profit margins compared to traditional retail's 3-4%, making it a lucrative revenue stream worth pursuing.
• Incentivize with ad credits: Use tiered credit systems for seller onboarding to encourage participation and reduce barriers to entry for advertisers.

The retail media opportunity is projected to reach $166 billion globally by 2025, making this the perfect time for retailers to enter this high-growth market using practical, composable solutions rather than waiting for complex custom builds.

Why Retailers Don't Need to Build RMNs From Scratch

A fundamental misconception continues to prevent retailers from entering the retail media space. They assume establishing a retail media network requires building or purchasing an expensive, complex advertising technology platform. This assumption creates an unnecessary barrier to entry.

The myth of full-stack ad-tech

Industry giants like Amazon, Walmart, and Target invested millions in comprehensive advertising platforms, creating the impression that this approach represents the only viable path. Smaller and mid-sized retailers observe these implementations and conclude they must follow identical strategies.

Most retailers already possess the foundational components needed for retail media. Their existing e-commerce infrastructure—product information management systems, search functionality, and customer data platforms—forms the backbone of a functional retail media network. Modern retail media networks don't require building everything in-house or purchasing monolithic platforms.

Traditional approaches force retailers to endure lengthy implementation timelines—often 12-18 months before generating their first dollar of revenue. This approach typically demands significant upfront investment, sometimes exceeding $500,000, before any ad revenue materializes. The financial risk alone discourages many retailers from pursuing this opportunity.

Composable commerce as a solution

Composable commerce offers retailers a more practical alternative. This approach allows businesses to assemble their retail media capabilities from existing components and purpose-built solutions rather than constructing a proprietary ad-tech stack from scratch.

We can leverage existing systems in several ways:

• Product information management (PIM) systems already store the product data needed for sponsored listings
• Current search and recommendation engines require only minor modifications to support promoted products
• Specialized components like Voucherify can manage ad credit systems without complex custom development
• Existing analytics tools can provide reporting and attribution with proper integration

This modular approach enables retailers to launch retail media capabilities in weeks rather than months or years. It also dramatically reduces implementation costs while preserving flexibility to expand as retail media needs evolve.

Common pain points in traditional RMN builds

Data fragmentation represents one of the most persistent challenges in traditional retail media implementations. Retailers struggle to unify product, inventory, and customer data across disparate systems. Without clean, accessible data, sponsored listings and targeted advertisements become unreliable at best.

Attribution complexity creates another significant hurdle. Tracking how advertisements influence purchasing behavior across channels proves difficult with siloed systems. Many retailers also discover they lack specialized advertising technology expertise on their teams—a gap that becomes expensive to fill quickly.

Traditional approaches often create barriers to seller adoption through complex onboarding processes and unclear performance metrics. These friction points discourage brand participation from the start. Scaling custom-built solutions as retail media offerings expand often proves problematic as well.

The financial burden of traditional implementations substantially delays ROI. While composable approaches enable revenue generation within weeks, custom builds typically require a year or more before retailers see returns on their investment.

The composable strategy provides retailers with immediate revenue potential while maintaining long-term flexibility. Retailers of virtually any size can participate in the retail media opportunity without overwhelming complexity or prohibitive expense.

What Retail Media Really Is (Without the Jargon)

Retail media offers something remarkably straightforward: advertising that appears directly within the shopping experience, precisely where purchase decisions happen.

Retail media = ads inside the shopping experience

Stripped of industry jargon, retail media is simply advertising that appears on retailer-owned platforms—websites, apps, and in-store displays—reaching shoppers at the moment they're deciding what to buy. Unlike traditional advertising that interrupts content consumption, retail media integrates promotional messages into the natural flow of shopping.

Retail media turns the shopping journey itself into an advertising channel. This approach harnesses retailers' digital platforms and physical spaces to create targeted advertising opportunities that combine data-driven insights with immediate shopping experiences. For brands, this represents a powerful opportunity to influence consumers when purchase intent peaks.

Examples of retail media placements

Let's look at the distinct formats retailers use to engage shoppers at different points in their journey:

• On-site retail media - Appears directly on retailer websites or apps, including sponsored product listings in search results, banner ads on homepages, and display ads on product detail pages
• Off-site retail digital media - Extends beyond retailer properties, using retailer customer data to target consumers on external websites.
• In-store retail advertising - Brings digital ads into physical locations via shopping cart screens, aisle displays, and checkout counters.

Other standard formats include email sponsorships, social media co-op buys, and video ads on retailer platforms. These placements work because they integrate seamlessly into the shopping experience—they appear naturally where people are already actively shopping.

Why it matters: margins, GMV, and seller satisfaction

The financial impact of retail media networks proves particularly compelling. While traditional retail margins typically range between 3-4%, retail media advertising can generate margins of 70-90%. This creates a significant opportunity for retailers to develop high-margin revenue streams alongside their core business.

Retail media networks also deliver impressive returns for brands. One L'Oréal retail media campaign generated $21 in return for every dollar spent. This performance explains why retail media spending continues to grow, currently accounting for approximately 15% of digital advertising spending.

Beyond direct revenue, retail media networks strengthen relationships between retailers and sellers. Retailers provide value-added services that help sellers reach relevant audiences through targeted advertising opportunities. This creates a virtuous cycle: sellers achieve better results, increasing their satisfaction and willingness to participate in the marketplace.

For shoppers, well-executed retail media enhances discovery rather than interrupting it. When properly targeted, these ads help customers find products that match their interests and introduce them to new items they might not otherwise discover. This approach transforms advertising from an intrusion into a valuable part of the shopping experience.

The growth trajectory remains impressive. U.S. retail media ad spend is forecast to exceed $100 billion by 2027, underscoring the enduring importance of this channel for both retailers and brands.

The Composable Retail Media Stack (Layer by Layer)

Building a retail media network doesn't require starting from zero. A composable approach lets retailers assemble their stack layer by layer from existing, specialized components.

Catalog & product data layer (PIM + automation)

Product information management (PIM) systems form the foundation of any retail media network. This centralized database stores and organizes all product-related information, ensuring consistency across channels while acting as a single source of truth. PIMs integrate with Digital Asset Management (DAM) systems to handle product images and videos, ensuring the right visual assets accompany each product listing.

This approach enables retailers to enrich product data with attributes that enable detailed analysis of campaign performance. Catalog mapping allows you to break down retail media metrics by specific products, brands, categories, and price points—revealing insights that would be missed at the campaign level.

Search & placement engine (Bloomreach, Algolia)

Search represents the most common way consumers find products on retail sites. Modern search solutions like Algolia intelligently interpret complex queries and yield relevant results, dramatically improving the shopping experience.

These robust search engines form the backbone for sponsored product placements. AI-powered technologies deliver 158% greater engagement rates than benchmark figures, determining where and when sponsored products appear while balancing relevance with promotional priorities.

Promotion engine (Voucherify for ad credits)

Promotion engines deliver personalized offerings based on shoppers' unique characteristics. For retail media networks, these engines manage ad credits—the currency brands use to purchase advertising space—systems like Voucherify support sophisticated promotion scenarios, including amount-off, percentage-off, and fixed-price promotions.

These engines automatically apply discounts via integration with checkout systems, eliminating the need for manual coupon entry and improving shopping experiences.

Ad inventory management via CMS

Content management systems control screen players and content distribution at the enterprise level. They operate campaigns and scheduling while providing essential tools for managing ad placements across digital properties.

CMS platforms enable flexible, multi-level user management with access controls, content synchronization across multiple media players, campaign scheduling with automatic publishing, and dynamic templates for automated ad creation.

Audience & data layer (CDP integration)

Customer Data Platforms (CDPs) centralize and unify shopper data from multiple sources—including POS systems, e-commerce platforms, CRMs, loyalty programs, and analytics tools. This creates comprehensive customer profiles through identity resolution, merging fragmented data points into unified views.

CDPs provide detailed customer segments for hyper-targeted ad campaigns, using behavioral data to deliver tailored ads at precisely the right moment across both digital and in-store channels.

Reporting & attribution using GA4 or Segment

Independent measurement resolves one of retail media's most significant challenges: proving impact. Without third-party measurement, advertisers struggle to gauge campaign effectiveness within larger media plans.

Independent measurement delivers three crucial benefits: trustworthy, unbiased information free from potential conflicts of interest, standardized metrics that enable apples-to-apples comparisons across different RMNs, and integrated analytics that offer a holistic view of advertising performance across all channels.

This approach helps measure actual impact through incrementality-based outcome KPIs while providing an understanding of the customer journey across multiple touchpoints.

Simple Techniques Retailers Can Use Today

Retailers ready to monetize their platforms don't need complex technical infrastructure to start generating revenue. Several straightforward retail media techniques can be implemented immediately through a composable approach.

Sponsored products in search and category listings

Sponsored product ads form the foundation of most successful retail media strategies. These native ads blend seamlessly into search results and product listings, reaching shoppers with high purchase intent. Keyword-based targeting places promoted products directly in front of interested buyers at the critical moment of search.

These ads typically appear as product thumbnails marked "Sponsored," yet they integrate so naturally with organic results that customers often don't perceive them as advertisements. The effectiveness speaks for itself—sponsored products constitute approximately 78% of overall Amazon ad spend among sellers.

Ad credits for seller onboarding and performance

Ad credits create powerful incentives for seller participation without requiring upfront investment. Amazon demonstrates this approach effectively by offering tiered ad credits to new sellers: $50 after spending $50, $200 after spending $200, and $1,000 after spending $1,000. These credits, valid for 30 days, encourage sellers to experience the platform's advertising capabilities without full financial commitment.

Retailers can establish similar programs using promotion engines like Voucherify to manage credit allocation and redemption. This composable approach eliminates the need for custom billing systems while encouraging seller adoption.

Brand stores and premium placements

Premium placements such as homepage takeovers, category page banners, and dedicated brand sections create high-visibility opportunities for brands. These placements allow brands to showcase multiple products simultaneously, tell richer stories, and create immersive shopping experiences.

Contextual relevance determines success in these premium formats. Ads shown next to related products or within categories aligned with shopper intent feel natural and beneficial rather than intrusive.

Retail media bundles for seasonal campaigns

Seasonal retail media bundles combine various ad formats into packages that maximize brand visibility during peak shopping periods. These bundles might include on-site ads, email sponsorships, and in-store promotions coordinated around seasonal themes.

Packaging different placements together creates cohesive campaigns that guide consumers from awareness to purchase. This approach also simplifies the buying process for brands while increasing average order values for retailers.

AI-based product suggestions for ad relevance

Artificial intelligence dramatically improves ad relevance by analyzing consumer data to predict purchasing behavior. Machine learning algorithms process transaction histories, browsing patterns, and seasonal trends to identify promising prospects for specific products.

This technology enables retailers to scale millions of personalized offers in real-time while ensuring each promotion feels relevant to individual shoppers. The result is higher conversion rates and improved customer satisfaction with the advertising experience.

Step-by-Step Implementation Roadmap

Most retailers can implement their RMN within 12 weeks through a phased rollout, following these practical steps:

Clean catalog data and enrich SKUs

Start by auditing all product data sources to ensure quality and completeness. Product data enrichment standardizes and categorizes information for use in ads. Well-organized catalog data becomes the foundation for practical sponsored placements and accurate reporting.

This step often reveals data gaps that need to be addressed before launch. Clean product information ensures sponsored ads display correctly and performance metrics remain reliable.

Deploy ranking and placement engine.

Next, implement a search and recommendation engine that powers both organic and sponsored product placements. This technology determines where and when promoted items appear, balancing relevance with promotional priorities.

The placement engine becomes your core monetization tool—it decides which products get premium visibility based on both relevance and advertiser spend.

Add sponsored placement logic.

Establish clear rules for how sponsored products integrate into search results and product listings. Define which surfaces are available for monetization, including category pages and search results.

Consider starting with search results and category pages, as these typically generate the highest engagement rates for sponsored content.

Enable seller buy-flow with credits and billing.

Create straightforward onboarding processes for advertisers with tiered credit systems to encourage participation. Implement automated billing structures that track impressions and clicks.

The key here is simplicity—complex onboarding processes discourage seller participation and delay revenue generation.

Integrate CDP for targeting.

Unify customer data across touchpoints to enable precise audience targeting. This creates privacy-compliant segments that can be used throughout your retail media ecosystem.

Customer data integration allows for sophisticated targeting while maintaining compliance with privacy regulations.

Launch 2–3 ad formats and dashboards

Begin with sponsored products and homepage banners before expanding. Provide advertisers with clear reporting dashboards showing campaign performance metrics.

Starting small allows you to perfect the fundamentals before adding complexity. Focus on getting these initial formats right rather than launching with too many options.

Conclusion

Retail media networks represent a golden opportunity for retailers of all sizes, not just industry giants. The composable approach makes this lucrative revenue stream accessible without building complex ad-tech infrastructure from scratch. Most retailers already possess many essential components needed to launch an effective RMN, allowing them to start generating revenue within weeks rather than months.

The financial case speaks for itself. While traditional retail operates on slim margins, retail media can deliver impressive returns of 70-90%. These networks also strengthen relationships with sellers by providing them with valuable advertising tools that directly impact their bottom line.

Retailers can begin their retail media journey today with practical implementations such as sponsored product listings, strategic ad credits, premium placements, and seasonal campaign bundles. Each of these techniques builds upon existing infrastructure rather than requiring extensive new development.

The path forward is clear: audit and organize product data, implement search functionality with sponsored placement logic, create straightforward seller onboarding processes, and integrate customer data to enable targeted advertising. This systematic approach allows retailers to launch their networks within approximately 12 weeks.

Retailers who hesitate based on misconceptions about technical complexity risk missing substantial revenue potential. The reality remains much simpler—through composable commerce, retailers can assemble effective media networks using existing components supplemented by specialized tools only where necessary.

Successful retail media networks create a win-win scenario: retailers gain high-margin revenue, brands reach highly targeted audiences at the point of purchase, and customers discover products aligned with their interests and needs. The opportunity is here today, and the tools to capture it are more accessible than ever.